Phosphorus
Phosphorus, or as the poets call him Eosphorus (Ἑωσφόρος) or Phaesphorus (Φαεσφόρος) (Latin Lucifer), that is, the bringer of light or of Eos, is the name of the planet Venus, when seen in the morning before sunrise.1 The same planet was called Hesperus (Vesperugo, Vesper, Noctifer or Nocturnus) when it appeared in the heavens after sunset.2
Phosphorus as a personification is called a son of Astraeus and Eos,3 of Cephalus and Eos,4 or of Atlas.5 By Philonis he is said to have been the father of Ceyx,6 and he is also called the father of Daedalion,7 of the Hesperides,8 or of Hesperis, who became by her brother Atlas the mother of the Hesperides.9
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References
Notes
- Homer. Iliad xxiii, 226; Virgil. Georgics, i, 288; Ovid. Metamorphoses ii, 115; Tristia i, 3. 72.
- Homer. Iliad xxii, 318; Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia ii, 8; Cicero. On the Nature of the Gods ii, 20; Catullus, 62, 64; Horace. Odes, ii, 9.10.
- Hesiod. Theogony, 381.
- Hyginus. Poetical Astronomy ii, 42.
- Tzetzes on Lycophron, 879.
- Hyginus. Fabulae, 65; Ovid. Metamorphoses xii, 271.
- Ovid. Metamorphoses xii, 295.
- Servius on Virgil's Aeneid iv, 484.
- Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library iv, 27; Servius on Virgil's Aeneid i, 530.
Source
- Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.